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THE XATIOXAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



action. Then a dark figure appeared and 

 bent over the log, fortunately recognized, 

 however, as a human being and evidently 

 the proprietor, from the manner in which 

 he examined the premises for signs of 

 deer. 



1 Tad he looked skyward and seen the 

 battery trained in his direction and the 

 trembling fingers pressed against the trig- 

 gers, he would doubtless have had some 

 concern. 1 lowever, he soon withdrew, 

 and again we awaited expectantly, when, 

 suddenly and without sound, a deer was 

 seen standing on the opposite side of the 

 log, with ears erect and nostrils twitching 

 in an effort to detect any danger. 



Counting three, the shotgun was fired, 

 followed a moment later by my^ compan- 

 ion's, and then the animal whirled and 

 was gone as silently as it came. Descend- 

 ing, we fonnd that the deer had crossed 

 the stream, and after trailing it some dis- 

 tance without finding any traces of blood, 

 we returned much disappointed. 



Just at dusk, on preparing to leave, a 

 deer whistled near by, showing that so 

 much tramping about the vicinity had 

 given the needed warning. Much crest- 

 fallen and somewhat sensitive to my com- 

 panion's declaration that had he shot 

 first, there would have been a dead deer, 

 I returned to town, wondering if such a 

 favorable chance would ever occur again. 



For more than fifteen years the State 

 penitentiary, a huge brownstone building, 

 has stood on the bank of the river just 

 above where the lick was, and now some 

 five hundred convicts gaze wistfully upon 

 the still peaceful valley in which the un- 

 fettered creatures of the woods continue 

 to roam. 



THE DISCOVERY OF WHITEFISH EAKE 



Several days later old Jack came shuf- 

 fling along, looking for a job. When he 

 heard of the unfortunate adventure with 

 the deer, he told how he had discovered, 

 two years before, a beautiful little lake 

 away back in the unexplored forest, 

 twenty miles east of his place, where deer 

 were so abundant that one could be killed 

 at any hour of the day or night. 



Naturally, this excited my interest, and 

 after further questioning I learned that 

 in the summer of 1869 he had been em- 

 ployed as a mail-carrier by surveyors 



looking over a route for a railroad be- 

 tween Marquette and a point on Lake 

 Michigan. When the preliminary survey 

 reached a long, deep gorge, impracticable 

 to bridge on account of the excessive 

 cost, the project was given up. 



Jack, however, noting the stream flow- 

 ing through this valley and the possibility 

 of rinding good trapping ground for the 

 ensuing winter, followed the gorge down 

 until he came to a lake about a mile in 

 length, where he saw many deer and 

 much evidence of fur-bearers. 



Later he built a half-way shelter at the 

 head of Sand River and a larger one at 

 the lake, where he had a season of suc- 

 cessful trapping. Further, it was unnec- 

 essary in making this trip to carry any- 

 thing but a couple of blankets, a gun, and 

 a few provisions ; for, besides the cooking 

 outfit at both places, he had an abundance 

 of maple sugar which could be used for 

 tea or made into syrup for flapjacks. 



THE BEGINNING OE FlETY YEARS' VISITS 

 TO THE NEWEY FOUND LAKE 



During the second week of August, 

 1 87 1, with my young brother as a com- 

 panion, we were driven in a buckboard to 

 an Indian cabin ten miles to the south, 

 near the Chocolay River, where an un- 

 comfortable night was spent on the attic 

 floor alongside several aged and ogress- 

 like squaws. 



After a hasty breakfast the packs were 

 adjusted according to the strength of 

 each, and a start was made on a fairly 

 good trail to the river, after wading which 

 the course was determined by trees 

 blazed the year before. The direction 

 was easterly along a maple ridge inter- 

 spersed with hemlock, where absence of 

 undergrowth made the traveling easy, the 

 few swamps having deer trails that 

 avoided all mud-holes and fallen timber. 



At noon the headwater of Sand River 

 was reached, where the little lean-to of 

 Jack's was to be occupied that night. The 

 packs, light as they were, had told on the 

 two very youthful members of the party. 



While the lunch was being prepared, 

 the sight of the little stream suggested 

 trout, and much to the surprise of Jack 

 we soon caught a dozen small fish. Like 

 most Indians, Jack had a rather hazy 

 notion about trout fishing in interior 

 waters, since Lake Superior, filled with 



